A Perfect Gentleman Read Free Page B

Wellstone Park in Norfolk. The house is in some disrepair, having been standing empty these past years, so I hope your daughter is handy with a needle. And a mop. I’ll be busy with the sheep, so I’ll expect her to look after the chickens.”
    Now the blood drained from the earl’s face and his mouth hung open. “What? My daughter? A mop?” he sputtered. “Chickens? But her dowry….”
    “Oh, I would not live off my wife’s fortune. It is a matter of honor with me, despite what you might think of my morals. I’d set any of the lady’s income aside for our children. We’ll want a whole parcel of them, to help on the farm, you know. But do not worry, I hope to come about in a year or two of hard work. Maybe five at the most. Then we can afford to hire more help. If we can get any of the locals to accept employment at the Park, that is. My uncle hanged himself there, if you don’t recall the scandal. They say he swings from the chandelier still, but I always thought the motion was caused by the drafts in the hall. I suppose I’ll have to see about fixing the windows. Or should repairing the leaking roof come first?” Stony scratched his head, deliberating.
    “But…but this house…?”
    “As you said, London will be less than comfortable for your daughter, now that you have told everyone and his cousin about my, ah, vocation. Besides, I shall have to leave the London house to Gwen, my father’s second wife, you know. Unless your daughter would feel more comfortable having her mother-in-law reside with us? I know my stepmama would adore having a daughter to bathe her forehead when she suffers the megrims, as the poor dear does so often.”
    When Patten started to wheeze and gasp, Stony took pity on the older man. He didn’t want the earl expiring on his Aubusson, either. “Perhaps there is another solution to our little dilemma. If you are willing to sit and listen…?”
    At this point, Patten would have listened to a castrato chorus singing sea chanteys. He sank onto the seat facing the viscount’s and mopped his forehead with his sleeve. The old fool must have given his clean linen to his weeping women, too, Stony thought.
    In the end, the matter was resolved peacefully, to everyone’s satisfaction, like the gentlemen they were. Lady Valentina’s reputation was restored by an enviable betrothal; Earl Patten’s honor was redeemed by a respectable alliance; Stony’s freedom was secured…by sacrificing his other associate in the escort business, Lord Charles Hammett.
    Charlie thought it a great joke, wedding a female even his father could approve, without being ordered to do it. If he waited for the duke’s choice, he could do a lot worse than Lady Valentina Pattendale. The gal was pretty and lively and well dowered. What more could a second son ask?
    The earl was content. So what if the young cub had no chin? His neckcloth was high enough to hide the lack, and who knew how healthy that older brother of his was, after all?
    Lady Valentina was delighted. Anyone was better than the Member of Parliament her father was threatening her with if she did not settle on a match this Season. She only wished she’d thought of Lord Charles before setting her sights on that broad-shouldered wounded hero. She could have been spared an uncomfortable night and gone straight to planning her betrothal ball.
    Stony told himself he was the happiest of them all, even if his future was the most in doubt. For a brief while he thought he might have to return to the card tables, and low dives at that, after such a disgrace. But he was not exiled from the beau monde, as Gwen had feared, not after accomplishing such a matrimonial coup. On the other hand, with his means of income made public, no young lady trusted his compliments or accepted his invitations. Even the plainest, shyest, doomed-to-spinsterhood misses would rather remain on the sidelines than dance with a man suspected of being paid to do so.
    No one was paying him